My DD is 6 weeks old. Every once in a while she will get very fussy even though all her needs are meet. It's obvious that she is just tired and is fighting sleep. When she is like this I just rock and comfort her until she cries herself to sleep in my arms. I would like to try CIO when she is like this to see if she can put herself to sleep. My question is that I was just wondering if she is to young to try it? She has never been left to cry for more than 5 minutes because it breaks my heart, so I don't even know if I can do CIO. If she is too young at what age would it be appropriate? Thanks to all!

I was just reading that you could try to pat your child on the back and talk to them and see if that settles them back to sleep - .. what I try to do is put her down (at 7 weeks) when she is HALF sleeping... in and out.. and if she cries I mean freaks out - big time then I try to pat her but that usually never works... so I pick her up and within 5 min. she is usually out totally... sleeping - and I put her in the bassinet.

I hope she will get better - I am just glad she goes to sleep fast after I pick her up and comfort her - and I dont have to be awake for hours after trying to put her down.

Ladies.....please, please! I am not a believer in CIO EVER although some people are........but to answer your question, 6 weeks is way to young to let her cry. Enjoy every precious minute of their baby-hood, it goes too fast! They are not manipulative at that age, just hold them, rock them, nurse them( if your nursing) do whatever it takes to get them to sleep. Have you tried a swing?

We do CIO. I definitely think 6 weeks is too early. I started right at 4 months old. She is 6 1/2 months old now and sleeps on her own without a problem. Has been consistently sleeping on her own since 2 weeks after we started letting her cry.

In hindsight, I think CIO would have been effective at maybe 3 months...probably 3 1/2 months would have been better. 4 months was good. Don't think I would wait longer than 4 months if you plan to use a CIO technique. It would still work, of course...I think the longer you wait...it just gets a little harder. At 3 & 4 months, babies are supposed to be sleeping really well (a deeper sleep) according to our Ped. So, that's why 3-4 months is the perfect time to start.

5 1/2-6 months is when they start to not sleep so soundly due to dreaming (again...that's according to our Ped). I can honestly say it would be HARD to start CIO on our baby now. I think she'd have nothing to do with it if I started this late.

5 1/2-6 months is when they start to not sleep so soundly due to dreaming (again...that's according to our Ped). I can honestly say it would be HARD to start CIO on our baby now. I think she'd have nothing to do with it if I started this late.

Yes 6 weeks is too early I think. I have just started CIO after exhausting all other resources and myself. lol My ds has finally taken to it I think. I was getting up with him probably 4 times *sometimes more* an hour or two. WAY too much!!! I could hardly deal with him in the daytime from all the nighttime.

You're just going to have to bear it for a little while longer. Keep rocking and patting and soothing. Still too young for CIO. 4 months is a good age to start...and yes, it is heart breaking, but after just a few nights it tends to get a lot better and easier, and the miracle is that most of them get it in just a few nights if you can stick to it!

Yes doctors don't recommend it until 4mo or later. But don't think that you won't get any sleep until then. My DS started sleeping well at 8wks and would sleep from 8-5am and only wake up once at 2am for a pacifier. This of course lasted until he was 4mo when he started teething (it wasn't just couple teeth, he got 8 teeth in the next 2mo).

I wasn't into CIO, but a time came when I was ready. You just know when that happens. When I tried it once at 4mo, he would cry for 10 minutes and I was going crazy, but 2 months later, I didn't even hear it anymore. Yes, it took about 2wks, now 1mo later, he still wakes up but only for a minute or so. Good Luck,

OK I have heard you need to set up a time for bedtime etc. and naps... so what if you choose 8pm and your little ones (8 week old) just fed at 6pm or so and they are sleeping since 7pm - ?? what do you do? that is what is happening to me -

I have been trying to get her on a 4 hour routine - but lately she is eating at 3 hours or sometimes 2.5 (growth spurt)?? maybe? And I can't put her to be at 8pm because she is already sleeping.... LOL! and then she usually eats around 10pm and then at 130 or 2am and again at 530am... that has been the routine.

I held and rocked my baby until he was 6mos old..and then started the gentle CIO as i call it..i would only wait 30secs in the beginning before going in to sooth him..he's almost 8 mos old and he falls right asleep at night time and will cry for 2-3min for his naps. It was hard for dh, ds and I but I realized that I needed to do something. But..if dh is home and puts ds to bed he can't do the cio And. I thought i was the softy!!
Good Luck!!
S

My dd is 5 1/2 months and just last night I was wondering if she is still too young to try it. But from what I am reading I should have tried it already. I will try it tonight of course. But How long should I let her cry for?

Here's our routine...I did what our Ped suggested. I didn't read any books on it:

Put to bed in crib awake (tired & time to go to bed, of course).

When they start crying, wait 5 mins before you go in. Do not pick up the baby. Give paci & pats to soothe until they calm down. I could mostly tell by listening to her breathing when she was calming down well. Leave. I make sure I only hang out with her for a few mins...5 mins max. If she hasn't calmed down a bit in 5 mins, I leave & start the next segment of time.

When crying starts again, wait 10 mins & repeat.

If again, wait 15 mins, etc. then 20 mins.

I personally had a VERY hard time letting 20 mins go, so I stuck with 15 mins max. After the first few days, you most likely shouldn't even have to entertain a 20 min wait time (in my experience, anyway).

At first, it sounds like the baby is wanting to die, she's crying so hard. After a couple days, I started learning her crying and it was very whiney...not a cry I was used to during the day. Definitely a tired cry where she was just fighting sleep. There was 1 time she let out a cry where I knew it was different...and I knew to go in ASAP (she was holding in her first solid poo & not figured out how to let it go yet).

Also in the early days of starting CIO, I found it easier on myself to go in another room where I couldn't hear the crying so clearly. I'd just watch the clock. That helped me get though it when I started.

As time went by and she could go to sleep on her own...we'd have some tougher nights than others. I'd find myself deviating from the above. Like, if she'd be asleep for an hour & start crying, I'd go in right away. Then she'd sleep for another 20 mins, then cry again. That would repeat for hours. There were a few times I had to tell myself to get back to the basic routine...and that always seemed to work.

S&J...LOL about your husband being the softy. Same here! If DH ever went in to pat DD down, instead of soothing and walking away, he hangs out as long as it takes for her to fall asleep. There have been SEVERAL times he'll stand at her crib in the dark patting her for like 35 mins. He comes out all mad, tired & frazzled. It's his own fault, and I keep telling him he's defeating the purpose of CIO by standing there until she falls asleep. He may as well picked her up & rocked her to sleep at that point. The purpose is to teach baby that it's okay to fall asleep on their own.

Friday, I think when your baby gets older & can go for longer times between feedings, you''ll find a bedtime will establish itself. I think I proclaimed "bedtime" somewhere between 9:00-10pm for a really long time in the first few months of life, to accommodate the fact that her last feeding for the night would be somewhere in that timeframe.

For me, DD was about 4.5 months old and on solids...able to go longer between feedings due to the solides...and the growth spurts stopped...before I could really establish a good set bedtime (which is now 8:00pm). Most nights she's ready to go to bed at 7:30 & can't make it until 8pm. The bedtime mostly evolved on it's own once the baby got past 4 months old.